Nearly A Thousand DUI Arrests In Malibu Over Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend is officially the final weekend of summer. For many, it marks the end of summer vacation and the return to school. For some, it is also an opportunity to fit one last party in their social calendar. Unfortunately, this can lead to people deciding to get behind the wheel while intoxicated. To combat this, many police jurisdictions ramped up patrol efforts and set up DUI checkpoints to curb drunken driving. One of the agencies ramping up these efforts was the California Highway Patrol. The Malibu Patch reports nearly 1,000 DUI arrests over Labor Day Weekend.

California Highway Patrol began ramping up patrols along state highways on Friday and expected the efforts to extend until 11:59 p.m. on Monday. This is all part of the agency’s annual Labor Day crackdown.

Sadly, as of 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, there were a total of 17 fatalities in traffic accidents over the weekend. Of those, two were pedestrians and one was a motorcyclist. This is compared to 30 fatalities during the “maximum enforcement period” over the same weekend in 2017.

Another 969 people were arrested under suspicion of DUI in this time frame. This is close to the same figure as last year over the holiday weekend, when the CHP arrested more than 1,000 drivers on suspicion of DUI.

In addition to checking for drunken drivers, patrols were also looking for those driving with suspended or revoked licenses and those not wearing seatbelts.

The CHP’s Labor Day “maximum enforcement period” coincides with the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The campaign runs from August 17th through September 3rd.